Main Arc Revival

[GoldenKitten]

Been talking with Zhiel and others to get a feel for the main arc. It's no great secret that the main arc is going nowhere, and even before it was going nowhere it still took a considerable amount of time to get anywhere. To compound the issue member participation has dropped with every consecutive arc. It's not hyperbole to say personal RP's are moving dozens if not hundreds of times faster than it. So we've been thinking of ways to combat this, I'm going to put forward the popular ideas and I want your opinions. If you have an even better idea, feel free to throw it forward. Finally tell us if you would be willing to rejoin the main arc if we enacted one of the plans.

So here the are.

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Brute Force – Through the power of sheer will we are going to make this behemoth inch forward. This means no change to the way we are addressing this as far as the story and arc set-up is approached. Instead it would rely on attempting to recruit existing members that have been ignoring the arc as well as trying to hook new members, then putting everything we have into it. While it's certainly an option and you never know if THIS TIME it might work it can't be said we haven't already tried this. The brute force method has more or less been what we've been doing all along, this time we would simply be agreeing unanimously to do all we could to pull people in.

Fast Forward – What it sounds like. We skip forward over what's currently going on in the hopes that bringing up the next more exciting scenario will rejuvenate interest. I'll stick up an overview of what was meant to happen in the intervening time and we'll act as if it occurred, but get through the boring stuff without having to go through it. We would try and get several members to agree to post before going forward. The potential issue here is that while we would likely see a temporary boost is activity would it really continue for an extended period?

Condense It – A variant of “Fast Forward”. We skip over what we are doing now, only we keep on skipping. Essentially we take an RP that was meant to be done over the course of six main arcs and several smaller connecting arcs (like Portal and Architecture) and fit it into just three big arcs (including the one we've done, For the Fallen). This would probably play out closer to the actual Bleach canon, balls-to-the-walls action, world exploding, get to the epic grand finale as fast as our members can post. While this would likely keep attention longer than the other listed methods the only issue I take with it is an artistic one. We'd be sacrificing all planned story depth for keeping attention and EXPLOSIONS!

The Retcon – It all goes away, never to be seen again. We act like the events of For the Fallen and everything inspired by it simply never occurred. Theres long been a backup second arc in the case that we ever managed to finish the first one that we can move into place and better yet it starts out with purpose instead of making something cohesive out of what was left over from the previous administration. The benefit is we get a fresh new story and everyones interest likely peaks for a while assuming we keep it moving. The detractor is obvious, we lose everything that's been done as well as scrapping a working story.

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These are the options that have come to mind so far. Whatever the decision two things will be necessary. First we will need to either recruit several new members or get confirmation from current members that they will in fact post (and please, if you have no intent to keep up consistent posting don't even say anything, we'd far prefer you stay quiet as to saying you can just to avoid being awkward and then you screw us all when your inactivity stops us all up). Secondly we will need to restart the old posting time limit of “_____ days before you are skipped” or toss out the posting order altogether so that if someone does stop posting we don't pay for them.

So there it is, read through and give me your thoughts.

Also PLEASE post in this thread not the Chatango with your response so that everyone can see what you have to say and not just those that happen to be on at the time.

- Golden “Awesome like a Chocolate Godzilla” Kitten

[Jukuma]

I think that a greater issue than the lack of interest in the Main Arc, the problem is that we have major players like Galihan, FC and recently Kensei, out of action and unable to post, so even if we want to become more active, we don’t have the necessary people to do it. Disregarding all that, however, I think the best course of action would be the Fast Forward plan and, in the worst case scenario, The Retcon.

Brute Force has already proved to be inneficient, and even if we used it, if people use the famous “I don’t have the muse” or “I’m way too busy” lines, we aren’t getting anywhere and there’s a limit as to how much we can skip people like that without simply kicking them out of the arc. We could all be bugging that same person “all vs. One” style, but even then I don’t see it being very successful. Of course, I don’t see why we can’t keep this as a complementary method to another option.

While I sympathize with the Fast Forward idea because it takes away the monotonous part of the story (which is necessary at a moment like this, I think), I think the Condescension option is simply abusing that same method a lot and, and like you say, all we have is action and well... Bleach as it really is. In other words, I think the best thing to do would be to skip the part we are currently in and look for some more excitement to keep people interested, but don’t do it in the future, at least not the close one.

I also sympathize with The Retcon option to some extent because it would be convenient for our current situation. We have members that are being inactive and if we make a whole new story then we can go simply with the ones we already have as active. Since stories tend to gain characters as they progress, then it wouldn’t be hard for the ones that are inactive at the moment to join later on. I haven’t even been for For The Fallen, though, so it perhaps sounds selfish for me to ask people who have been here longer to simply forget about everything they have done over all this time, but if none of the other options seem to work and people still don’t come back, I think we should consider this one.

Whatever the outcome, I’ll remain active. I am going through a time of severe change and moving around since I recently graduated, but so far I haven’t had problems with finding internet, so I think I won’t have trouble remaining active.

[Knightmayre]

Me personally, I'll throw in a shot for fast forward as well. Retcon still remains a possibility if a fast forward fails, but condensing and brute force, as Jukuma pointed out, have flaws that are too big not to notice. While I am enjoying portal as it goes along, the continents of the earth that move milimetres every year are likely to get further than the main arcs are by that time. And condensing...as you said when you were setting up Passing Storm GK, this site already has a tendency to end up in action, and while action is good, there needs to be more, and removing said more means we will end up losing the advanced-expert aspect of a roleplay, where people can actually exist without needing to break into battle.

That's my opinion anyway/

[Darkoda]

I vote for fast forward. I agree with jukuma that condensing it will essentially kill the point of the main arc, making this a repeat of the current bleach manga, just with far less plotholes. Besides, constant battling in of itself will get tiresome. If push comes to shove, retconning can be done although I can't exactly say much about that, since I wasn't here for that first arc.

[Mr. Butterfly]

Jun 18, 2010 4:51:23 GMT -4 Jukuma said:

I think that a greater issue than the lack of interest in the Main Arc, the problem is that we have major players like Galihan, FC and recently Kensei, out of action and unable to post, so even if we want to become more active, we don’t have the necessary people to do it. Disregarding all that, however, I think the best course of action would be the Fast Forward plan and, in the worst case scenario, The Retcon.

Brute Force has already proved to be inneficient, and even if we used it, if people use the famous “I don’t have the muse” or “I’m way too busy” lines, we aren’t getting anywhere and there’s a limit as to how much we can skip people like that without simply kicking them out of the arc. We could all be bugging that same person “all vs. One” style, but even then I don’t see it being very successful. Of course, I don’t see why we can’t keep this as a complementary method to another option.

While I sympathize with the Fast Forward idea because it takes away the monotonous part of the story (which is necessary at a moment like this, I think), I think the Condescension option is simply abusing that same method a lot and, and like you say, all we have is action and well... Bleach as it really is. In other words, I think the best thing to do would be to skip the part we are currently in and look for some more excitement to keep people interested, but don’t do it in the future, at least not the close one.

I also sympathize with The Retcon option to some extent because it would be convenient for our current situation. We have members that are being inactive and if we make a whole new story then we can go simply with the ones we already have as active. Since stories tend to gain characters as they progress, then it wouldn’t be hard for the ones that are inactive at the moment to join later on. I haven’t even been for For The Fallen, though, so it perhaps sounds selfish for me to ask people who have been here longer to simply forget about everything they have done over all this time, but if none of the other options seem to work and people still don’t come back, I think we should consider this one.

Whatever the outcome, I’ll remain active. I am going through a time of severe change and moving around since I recently graduated, but so far I haven’t had problems with finding internet, so I think I won’t have trouble remaining active.

This.

[Wanzer]

I'm big on back story and really would be more inclined to go with Brute Force. However seeing as the issue remains on getting members to post and having a working muse I'm going to say that fast forward seems like the best idea though losing the back story seems painful to me. As we're building characters not going around with flashing swords having a my bankai is bigger than yours.

[Galihan]

Well low and behold, light up the batsignal and you might get me instead. Again, I would like to apologize to everyone, especially Jukuma for having to put up with my erratic spells of nonexistence, but alas, I have survived and I'm in the clear to get back into roleplaying once I can kickstart my ass back into commission.

Now onto the matter at hand, I think that if we were to go with the Fast Farward method, then it wouldn't be the worst possible outcome as opposed to Brute Force - which has never worked very efficiently to begin with, or Condense It - which in my opinion feels too superficial and will borderline the worst of what Kubo has to disappoint us with. Overall, Fast Forward or Condensation both are essentially ways of pumping steroids to stimulate progress without actually building a proper support that can hold its own once the new car smell wears off.

And that leaves me with the final option. If we have to go with the Retcon, then so be it, a fresh start would be nice for a change of pace as previously mentioned. However in that case, then of course certain characters who did happen to be heavily influenced by the For the Fallen Arc would also have to be heavily rebooted themselves to accommodate, namely anyone connected to Torre who wasn't killed off.

And that's my two cents, even if the stock market-value of Galihanium may or may not have tanked in the past month.

[GoldenKitten]

Well Fast Forward is looking like the agreed option for now. But for the record if we did Retcon I'm thinking Torre would have lead some sort of rebellion, or at least left Las Noches since theres been a little to much change surrounding her for a full retcon of everyone involved.

[Galihan]

I was under the impression that we've already been doing a combination of Fast Forward along with the ol' Brute Force. The more I think about it, the more appealing Retcon sounds to me, but of course if we all for the most part do decide to simply keep going with what we have in the making already then I'll be fine with that. My only major concern with Fast Forwarding or Condensing as of now is that it's much more of a challenge to actually come up with a polished product composed of various abridged segments.

[kensei]

Well first, let me begin by apologizing about not being active. My brother just got married, and my grandfather died, plus my dad was spending the last two weeks here and I have been very busy working lately. Also, I’m a tad bored of Taza..

But that’s not the important issue.. The fact is none of these seem like a good idea to me.. Brute force will only work if we can get a good movement behind it. Lets face it, for a long time 187 was moving faster then any other thread, but because Gk has been busy writing his book, we have virtually stopped on that. And that is the inherit problem with main arc plots, they move slowly because if one member stops everyone stops. The only way to work this is if everyone posts on a regular basis but lets face it.. This is BS…

Fast forwarding will strip out the much needed back story, and character building.. Condensing will make it even worse, the only way I’d even rp a condensed story was if I made a drunk pirate who’s bankai was Russian molitavs.. But pressing the FF button on your admin remote for a bit might just help us get things going…

Retcon might just very well work. The back up arc sounds like it would be faster paced and would people would be more clued in on whats going on and it would actionier then the current arc is right now. But it would cause many members to revamp there characters who’s history is heavily influenced by current events and arc characters. (E.x. Me with Taza..)

So I have pointed out flaws that have already been pointed out.. Now my idea, which isn’t that great…

I would brute force through the current arc, and then fast forward until the factions are a bit more organized, maybe to where the NWO is experimenting with type 2, open up the brotherhood leader positions so humans can start at phase 2, create a full synopsis of the last three arc’s (or however many we have had) and then start to recruit.. But keep the first few rounds of posting in the new arc a bit slow that way we can (hopefully) weed out the inactive people and skip them without major plot damage. If all else fails, Retcon.. Those of us that would have to revamp suck it up and we see if a new plot doesn’t fix our procrastination issues..


Edit:
Well i had another idea while in the shower. (Holiday inn moment..) What we could do, instead of a short fast forward or a total retcon is fast forward till after the events of the Horror Vacui and the current plot, and go into the second. That way no one has to revamp there characters and we get into a little faster passed arc.

What we could then do is set up Prequel Arcs down the road if it turned out a lot of members still wanted to Rp the horror Vacui arcs out.

Also, one thing about BS arcs is the limited if any hollow involvement in the recent arcs. Many people have Hollows yet they cant participate in the main arcs with them because there is no place for them. I dont know how well the new story could be done so they could have more involvement, but i believe in the next arc we could fit them in easier. I dont know Gk's master plan for them in the current story, so it could be he has there place planned out in the current one already and i just dont know it..

[schitzo7830]

Well, First off i will kill two birds with one bankai bye saying "Im sorry.: Sorry for being sooo inactive over the last two months. Life throws oddballs at you and well ive had to adjust my schedualing. I failed tenth grade and have really had to get my life on track. So now that ive given my reason/excuse i shall move on.

I personally see FF as our best scenario. If we fast forward we sacrifice some character development and background story. But we will be provided with an overview of the arcs anyways. Once the plot picks up we can slow it down. Our main issue is getting it MOVING. Also with fast forwarding we dont have to sacrifice all work put into the main arc so far (Not that i have any post in there yet -_-).

This is just my vote. Most of what i have said has already, well... been said.
-Schitzo

[GoldenKitten]

Alright, here's the plan. Fast Forward, if the main arc dies out again after that we do the retcon, or at least a partial retcon (I believe what we would do is still have the shinigami attack Las Noches ala FtF, the HV would simply never have shown up, but this allows for alternate excuses for why people are where they are now without having to do a total rewrite). And if that fails...well I'll probably just give up on trying to make a main story work on this site unless we get an influx of members...which seems doubtful.

Does this sound agreeable?

[kensei]

Sounds good to me..


Now, if people join, and then stop posting... Im going fong them.. IM going to... Ill rip off your... PAIN LOTS OF PAIN!